Be Inspired By Radiant Orchid

Each year Pantone selects what it predicts will be the color of the year, and for 2014 they're forecasting a color that we don't often see in scrapbooking- a lovely shade of purple!

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A quick search on Pinterest will turn up hundreds of images of inspiring ways to use this hue, and I've included just a few of them here today.

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While Pantone only forecasts what they think will be a trending color and doesn't control its success or failure, we're actually already seeing shades of Radiant Orchid pop up in scrapbooking products. The Autumn Crisp collection by American Crafts (you'll find several pieces of it in the December Add-On kit) includes small amounts of purple, and if you find that using purple on your scrapbook pages is intimidating, take a minute to look at the images above again, then keep reading below.

In Pantone's Radiant Orchid image, purple is definitely the star of the show. In the rest of the inspiration images, though, it's used in different ways- as the main focus, as a supporting color, mixed with differing amounts of other shades, or even as a tiny accent. If you want to try using purple but don't know where to start, take a cue from that last usage and add just a tiny amount to your page.

My layout uses a fairly large piece of Autumn Crisp paper at the bottom along with a smaller piece at the top, and to tone them both down further I pulled a piece of vellum out of my own crafting stash to layer over the top. The result is a page with just a hint of purple to coordinate with the purple books in one of the pictures, but here purple is definitely in a supporting role and not the main focus.

Pantone's announcement of their 2014 color forecast is also a reminder that 2013 is quickly drawing to a close! We hope that you enjoyed your Christmas holidays and look forward to sharing more with you all this week and into the new year.